This label is awarded to specialized libraries whose holdings are large, varied and comprehensive in terms of their subject area, with regular additions of printed and online resources, archives and objects, and which are highly accessible and fully promoted through listings in national catalogs, digitization projects, study days, etc. CollEx Persée's comprehensive application is evaluated by its scientific committee on the basis of an in-depth analysis carried out by three experts: a specialist in scientific and technical information and two researchers in the relevant disciplines. Once the library has been classified as a collection of excellence, it is listed and promoted on the CollEx portal , making it eligible for calls for projects involving research on its holdings, digitization or cross-disciplinary work.
A few months ago, the Chinese Studies Library, together with researchers from the University of Nice, the ENS and the EFEO, took part in a CollEx call for projects, and was one of 19 winners nationwide, for its COREL project, or COde RELationnel, which aims to digitize over five hundred titles essential to research into the legal, administrative and social history of modern China, and to bring together metadata, texts and images in a database designed to facilitate analysis of the conditions underpinning the development of Chinese law in the late imperial period.
These CollEx accreditations attest to the richness of the Collège de France libraries, as well as to the institution's investment in their development and the quality of the work carried out by the professionals involved in creating, developing, preserving and promoting these specialized collections.
